1977 1 of 11
JOURNAL OF 1977
My journal from 1977 contains many "see DIARY XXXX" references. These will be filled in later; I just want to get the BASIC journal pages on the website.
DIARY 11545
SATURDAY, JANUARY 1. Wake about 8, doze and dream (see DIARY 11541) until 9:15, turning down the 4-5 blanket to 2-3, then to 1, then off to get me back into the room with my overheated body. Then do light-work from 9:15 to 9:40 (see DIARY 11542) and have Dark-Night-of-the-Soul thoughts (see DIARY 11543-44) which I expand nicely while typing them. Too impatient to type these pages to exercise, so I dress and get these 6 pages off by 10:55, getting out the calendar and finding, to my sorrow, that Sunday is at RIGHT, not left. Then exercise, fertilize the plants, wishing them a Happy New Year, and fill the humidifier, though the windows are filled with ice and it seems to be cold outside. Have cereal for breakfast, reading Scientific American and finally get to work at 12, which is going to make it rough to do my 11 hours today. Remove more paperclips from 12 to 12:15, then from 12:15 to 4:20 type pages 85 to 134, 50 in 4.1 hours for just over 12/hour, which is somewhat slow, sadly. My shoulders are starting to ache, though I lower them to relax them every so often, but the spate of 50 is about as much as I can comfortably do. Then get back to the K-L box from 4:20 to 4:40, and think to take a shower but find that the water backs up! Disgusted with that now, too! Watch the skating from Rochester from 5-6, but they don't have John Curry, though they DO have a few backstage scenes with some of the men partners in dancing and figure skating, so that's nice. Made steak and keep finishing off Dennis's lettuce that I'd almost forgotten about. Continue on K-L from 6-7, not really feeling like typing, feeling that I HAVE to finish editing first, and then find that "Space 1999" is one I hadn't seen, a rather nice one about a "neutrino transmission from earth" in 2025 that gets a threesome lost in Scotland in 1139, almost burning before they're saved back to Alpha. Pope calls right at the end to wish me a Happy New Year, and we talk to 8:10, and I finish K-L from 8:10 to 9:10. Oh, NOW'S the time I try the shower! Ms. Watson is back home, which emphasizes the quiet I enjoyed for the past two days. I'd hoped she'd died. Then from 9:30 to 1:50 I work on the M box, in an increasingly cold room to an increasingly rotten frame of mind, talking back to John and Margaret and ACC in my mind when I don't finish by the deadline. Feeling sorry for myself and the index and the book. Have some eggs because I'm starved, then smoke a bit and snuggle under the blanket again turned up, and get to sleep too late at 2:25 am!
DIARY 11546
SUNDAY, JANUARY 2. Wake about 8:30, obviously not enough, and about 9:45 try to get into light-work, but my mind roams and rambles and I finally get into it about 10:05 and finish about 10:25. Then up to find the shower still not draining so I type a quick letter to Dennis and go out for the Times, not THAT cold outside, and it looks like a sharp, clear day, too, and glance through it, finding with relief that there isn't much to tempt me from TV this week, and work the puzzles from about 11 to 12, while watching Camera Three and the finish of the Al Carmines fiasco. Breakfast of cereal while watching it, then get to the M box from 12:25 to 2:45, for a total of 6 hours and 40 minutes, so it BETTER have been about 2 boxes worth! Then think to get the K-M clips up to date with the A-J clips, and it takes longer and longer, the book really beginning to show its multi-authored seams, and it's all I can do to keep calm and not just decide to go out for the next week or so. Work on the clips from 2:45 to 4:25, still pleased with the work that I'm doing (and it's somewhat warmer inside, too---and it's QUIET!), and then I'm so hungry that I stop, check that the Drano didn't do anything with the drain, eat more eggs and two slices of toast to stop the HUNGER, and type this page by 5:10, just coincidentally as Mrs. Watson comes BACK, so I'm pleased with the scheduling. Start back on typing pages immediately at 5:10, with 135, hoping to do at least 50 (65, though, would be up to page 200), and that goes easily and even rather quickly, so I continue through to 200, then I get THERE and decide that I can type until 11, and then figure to type to 11:10 to make it exactly 6 hours of typing, and I end up finishing page 213, 79 pages in 6 hours, just over 13 pages/hour, and I'm not as tired as I was yesterday with 50 pages, and am feeling VERY good about it, though worried about how the noise of the typing might affect the neighbors, but no one comes to complain. Walk around a bit celebrating until 11:30, then start proofreading, but IT doesn't go faster, about the estimated 33 pages per hour, so I do pages 1-60 until about 1:20, then figure I've done 12 hours work TODAY and need 108 more to finish, or 9 days like that, which would make my deadline the 12th. Then warm up some soup, not really THAT hungry, but I've been chewing on my cheeks, and get to bed without even smoking at about 2:15, coming to some sort of PLATEAU!
DIARY 11549
MONDAY, JANUARY 3. Wake about 8:30, come as described on DIARY 11547, have the good thoughts on DIARY 11548 and type these three pages by 10:20 am, feeling GOOD! Thought maybe Bob Rosinek had called before 9:45 and call him at work, but he's sick at home with a bad back, so I call him there and talk to him about his "hand from another dimension" while he was lying listening to Alicia and Nina talking in the other room, saying he knew it wasn't Nina even though "When I get up to piss in the night I come back to find my bed MADE." Then John calls and says he'll be sending a messenger out at 2 to pick up 150 pages. I went down to Mrs. Johnson, saying I was working and didn't get her a Christmas gift yet, and she comes up to blast out my shower drain and leave some stuff in it that I have to wash down at 12:15 and don't until 12:45, but it really worked! Finally get down to the index at 11:35, feeling that I might not finish, and it actually takes 3 hours to proofread 90 pages! So that's from 11:35 to 2:20, and the messenger arrives at 2:20 JUST as I finish typing the cover page. Have some eggs again to eat something while I'm reading the mail, do my exercises in the afternoon, and then type more pages (214-238) for him from 4-6, and then I sit and watch "Star Trek" with the beautiful Gary Lockwood on a charmingly antique program that I haven't watched since November 1975, and then shower and shave for the first time since THURSDAY, beginning to smell me, even changing my pullover, and THEN exercise, is when it is, and watch "In Search of Ancient Flight" silly as ever, from 7:30 to 8, feeling just EASY about it. Then put on the smoked pork to roast for 3 hours, and finally get back to typing pages 239-250 from 8:10 to 9:10, and then start proofreading from 9:10 to 9:40, then in to prepare a GOOD dinner of TASTY pork, beans, and lettuce and watch "The Police Tapes" on 13 from 10 to 11, until I get bored and shut them off before they end at 11:30. Then continue proofreading and alphabetizing until 2:30, feeling pretty woozy but good for having FINISHED, and get more eggs into my stomach and two pieces of toast, but then can't sleep, smoke a BIT at 3, then some more at 3:30 and finally fall asleep with the phone near my bed for John's call that he said he'd make as early as 10. Sorry deadline's slipped to 12th!
DIARY 11550
TUESDAY, JANUARY 4. Wake surprisingly early at 9:15, not even 6 hours, and decide light-work will make me feel better, so I go to the orange light and work fairly quickly, so that I'm just OVER when John calls at 9:40, and I probably sound untalked-to, but he doesn't say anything, saying messenger will be over in "a couple of minutes." Up to make the bed (something that I HAVE to do), don't feel like exercising or typing diary, so just water the plants and then harvest the last of the grass to get RID of the flies, which have been flying around the lamp in the study, to my annoyance. Still lots of eggs on leaves, and I kill over 200 after destroying hundreds before counting and think I have "most of them." Then get to editing with relief from 10:30 to 12:45, working on N-O box, and then the messenger finally comes after another call from John, and I'm down for the mail and look through it while having breakfast, from 12:45 to 1:15. Then from 1:15 to 3:25 I finish the N-O box for 4.5 hours, so it's getting long near the end. Work on P from 3:25 to 6, then sit down to eat soup (Lipton's beef mushroom isn't as good as their vegetable; not so many goodies) and watch the start of "The Corbomite Maneuver," and to my lazy surprise find myself watching the whole thing! Arnie and Greg had called and said they'd take Dennis's apartment, so I wrote him another letter which I didn't get out to mail; and then Ginny called with the 2-week schedules for HER four books, and I haven't called LAUREN yet! Then work from 7 to 9:20, 5 hours on the first box of P, and continue from 9:20 to 11:50, nicely operating on automatic until I decide that I have to be seeing about DINNER, so I put on the pork at 11 and from 11:50 to 12:35 have dinner while finishing up another Scientific American, and then back to wearily finish the day from 12:35 to 2:15, making it a 13.5 hour day just when I need it most, almost finishing with P, but stopping where the time's even. Then warm up the bed and at 2:30 feel horny enough to come, so I smoke and get out the porno for a quick one and get VERY hard and VERY good feelings, coming up with another score on my Sex Statistics on DIARY 11527, getting a "9" on "overall effect of orgasm" with a glorious 39 spasms of incredible intensity with at least 2 post-come drops for a score of 50, and to welcome sleep at 3 am, again putting the phone near me for early-morning calls.
DIARY 11551
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5. Up and out of bed almost instantly at 9:30, feeling pretty good after only 6.5 hours sleep, and make the bed and even nail up the calendar which has been laying on the floor. Add the Sex Statistic and do these two catch-up pages by 10:20, hoping, maybe, to finish index on TUESDAY! Finish the P-Q boxes from 10:30 to 10:40, work on R-editing from 10:40 to 2:30, with 45 minutes off when Arnie calls to talk about movies at the MMA and various other things of uninterest and then I go down for the mail and have breakfast about 12:45 also, and then start on the S's from 2:30 to 6:30, talking for 45 minutes to Rolf and warming up soup (Lipton's even worse on the second day: mushrooms soggy and the beef flavor about gone) to have during "Star Trek" duplicate, and then from 6:30 to 6:45 I remove more clips from E-F to type more pages today, since I simply can't wait until all the editing's done to type, since I can't type 12 hours a day! Ms. Watson gone for most of the day, so it's blessedly quiet, but when she's HERE she's CONSTANTLY walking around, and when I start typing, it's almost impossible not to think she's urged he cat to bounce around on the floor over my head, since it does that constantly while I'm typing through this evening. And then her radio goes on louder and louder, too. Type pages 251-276 from 6:45 to 8:50, then go take care of making dinner to that I have something to "do" while watching Merce Cunningham on "Dance in America" from 9-10, and he surely doesn't modify his image for a TV audience, saying that he's trying to make dance "more like life, where the sound doesn't go with the movements and nothing's really terribly harmonious," to put words I'm sure he'd say were completely false in his mouth. Then back to typing from 10 to 11:15, though I'd debated typing longer, but she does finally put the music off upstairs, the cat calms down, and I have some concern for the people below ME. Then move around the apartment to relax, filling up the humidifier, thinking about what's still to be done (and glad I'd gone outside after typing to mail the letter to Dennis; THAT'S out anyway. Then Mrs. Johnson came to spray for roaches and the place SMELLS pretty bad. And it's cold and colder since this is the third day without a shower.) Finish editing the S boxes except for clips from 11:30 to 2:30, cold and tired, and wash and get into bed WITHOUT eating, and light-work from 2:40-3:10, sleep sans smoking.
DIARY 11552
THURSDAY, JANUARY 6. Wake at 9, surprised to find I wake feeling refreshed in less than 6 hours (maybe I just have a good self-hypnotist). Lay there thinking about working until 9:30, then up JUST as she gets up and starts moving around and puts on her records upstairs, and check that I've planned the job to be finished in 84 hours, working only a half-day on Tuesday, and the lamp's STILL blinking and going out, and do this page by 10 am. But I MUST wash dishes, shower, and send out some mail items TODAY, too! Remove clips from 10 to 10:20 and then start typing, doing pages 293-333 from 10:20 to 1:30, when I go down for the mail and have breakfast while reading it. Back to type pages 333-360 from 2 to 4:25, when I'm tired enough to stop to do the dishes, and then type from 5:10 to 6, when I sit down with soup to watch the beginning of Karidian and decide that I never REALLY saw it, so I sit through THAT, having FORGOTTEN that the daughter KILLED all her father's "enemies" and then killed HIM by mistake, too! Back to type from 7 to 8:50 and to my inexpressible delight type through to page 392, which means I typed 100 pages today! Call Arnie to share my delight, and sadly talk to him for about 40 minutes, when I really wanted to chat for 10. Then into the shower, having the hot water go off on me right at the end, and shave quickly and get back to clip-freeing from 10:05 to 10:30 to 10:45, when I get into the kitchen to put the dishes away and have dinner, finishing the last of the GOOD pork shoulder for 4 meals for just over $4, a real bargain, and also finish the last of the moldering 14 oranges that I got in one swoop. Then back to the Ts from 11:45 to 1, when I'm feeling tired enough to stop after only 10.5 hours. Also, it's getting COLD and I'm feeling that my eyes are VERY tired from typing all those pages today, and I find that my schedule still looks very good, but now I'm starting to be curious just how many pages I WILL have, which means I should finish the editing and measure the boxes of cards typed and to be typed. Put on the blanket and brush my teeth and wash out the humidifier and fill it and get into bed about 1:15 to do light-work from 1:30 to 2, taking about 15 minutes to just CALM DOWN enough to get into the orange light. Sleep without any recollection of a time between turning over and actually sleeping.
DIARY 11554
FRIDAY, JANUARY 7. Wake at 9, bright and rested, so I bounce out of bed and finish the T box in one sitting from 9:05 to 12:45. Then down for the mail (almost nothing) and have breakfast with almost dry cereal, since I just ran out of milk, from 12:45 to 1, still feeling very cold in the room, and then tackle the LAST box from 1-3, and John calls and says he'll call later, and he may be the one who called and didn't leave a message when I left (into the BEAUTIFUL snowfall of last night and this morning, that left ALL the trees just COVERED with snow and VERY beautiful outside, though it's above 32 and sloppy underfoot on the streets, but not in the back yards) at 3:05 to return the record that was two days overdue (10 fine), see there are no new ones I want, no books either, and shop for meat and groceries, chatting with both John and Rolf on the street, and John says the place for the second weekend is VERY nice. Home at 4 to get the unvoiced message, put the groceries away, and get back to removing more clips from 4 to 4:20, in preparation for more typing, even though the editing isn't done YET; but I just HAVE to get those pages OUT! Sad that there's not enough time for 100 TODAY, too! Then type these two pages by 4:40 pm. Back to typing at 4:40 and type pages 383 and onward until 8, taking time off to make soup, rather good Goodman's split pea, from 5-6, "stirring occasionally," and then check the duplicate "Star Trek" while eating it, and take a half-hour for "lunch" in the making and eating. Then at 8 stop for "The Assault on Everest" with the two people from the Bicentennial American team to make it to the top in a FLUKE of good weather and planning and skill. That breaks it up until 9, and then I type through from 9:10 to 11, finishing up through page 450, a nice place to stop, though only 58 for today. Channel 13 delays the movie, so I edit in the last box from 11 to 11:30, then get out the chuck roast that I'd made for 11 and left to warm until 11:30, along with the vegetables, and the meat is AWFUL to eat, just not WORTH it, but I'm glad I tried it ALONE and not with Dennis. Then watch a very colorful "Juliet of the Spirits" from 11:30 to 1:30, making popcorn, and don't need it but enjoy it---poor quality in colored, and smoking and enjoying the muscles, and then get into a COLD bed, under the covers with the heat up to 6, and FALL ASLEEP without turning it down, without doing light-work! Stoned, dammit!
DIARY 11555
SATURDAY, JANUARY 8. Wake about 8, SWEATING under the not-turned-down blanket, and turn it down and relax until I get out of bed at 8:55, make it, and FINISH EDITING THE LAST BOX from 9 to 10:20, feeling just DELIGHTED with that, and then I remove paperclips from 10:20 to 11:30 and decide I have to TYPE, so I go down for the mail (getting a GREAT porno letter from Dennis, and I'm almost glad he didn't know he SHOULDN'T have, since it wouldn't make it BETTER for me, only WORSE) and type this page by 11:55. LATE! Had breakfast, too. Then type pages 451-473 from 11:55 to 2---and it's THEN that I have breakfast---and from 2:15 to 6:10 I type 474 to 524, getting JUST about to 13/hour. Took a time off at 4:30 to see that "Star Trek" was a duplicate, have soup from 6:10 to 6:35 while reading Soho Weekly News, and forgot that earlier I borrowed the space heater from John so that I could work late these next few nights without freezing in the unheated building. Then from 6:35 to 8:20 I work to remove more clips, then get back to typing from 8:20 to 11, finishing up pages 525-560, making a grand total of 110 pages today, and NOW I'm beginning to worry about PROOFREADING everything! I'd put on the beef to cook again from 10:15, and when I finish typing JUST about 11:05 (and relieved that no one in the building seems to be here to be bothered by my typing, which is a GREAT relief, but I find myself stupidly thinking about things that could go wrong: like leaving the heater on and burning the place down, getting a malicious robber who'd just wreck everything, or I just die, leaving everything in a shambles. Put those thoughts from my mind as well as I can. Eat more of the awful beef from 11:05 to 11:45, and then from 11:45 to 2:50 I go through the clips, checking dictionary, other cards, and the manuscript to get many of the clips removed and problems resolved, but it's taking a VERY long time. By then I'm exhausted, calculating that this has been a 15-hour workday! Estimate about 50 hours more, which will bring the total to about 450 hours, or about $6750 IF I charge my $15 an hour. Probably WILL, too! Then smoke, exhausted, and put in earplugs, take phone into room, and fall dead asleep without thinking of coming or eating or ANYTHING at 3:10 am!
DIARY 11556
SUNDAY, JANUARY 9. Wake about 8:30, surprised to be up so early, but then turn over to doze and it's 9:35 when I get out of bed, still not even 6 hours! Decide to leave off buying the Times until I drop in at Bill Wolf's at 3:30, so I remove clips from 9:45 to 2, STILL not finished with editing but by then I'm starving, so I have breakfast and then shower and wash my hair, AGAIN for the first time in three days, and I'll have to shower tomorrow to prepare for Dennis on Tuesday. Continue editing from 2:40 to 3:50, STILL not finished, but to the last batch, and I get out to buy the Times and drop in on Bill Wolf and look at about 10 people sitting around eating, VERY much like Fred Bassoff's, so I'm glad I'm not staying; not anyone's interesting, anyway. Back at 4:05 and look to see that there are a few things I'd like to see on TV, then get back to editing from 4:10 to 5, FINISHING that AT LAST. See that I have 26 boxes, that I've typed from 17 already, so I figure there are roughly 8 left, or 1/3, and get TOTALLY freaked when I figure that 560 as 2/3 would make the whole thing EXACTLY 840 pages, which is just what I'd AIMED at (though it will be a little over, necessary for the (cont.) lines, which I count NOW and find to be a reasonable 255 for 560 pages, so my 21,000-line aim would be satisfied by 852 finished pages, which I SHOULD get to!). Then from 5-6 I watch Zero Mostel in "Gianni Schichi," eating lunch of eggs, toast, and orange, on some kid's program, and it's not bad, but it's not very good either, except that, since it's sung in English, it's more clear to be a paean to FLORENCE than anything else. Then get to type this page, count the number of (Cont) lines, and get to typing at 6:40. But the one page (561) goes VERY poorly and I decide what I'd BETTER do is type up the correction pages. Take a LONG time to type them, and then find to my horror, when proofreading, that I'd not turned "Blue sclera" upright in the box, and there are probably OTHERS! So I move the kitchen table into the living room and blindly search through 5000 cards to find the 5 that I messed around with. Watch "Reincarnation of Peter Proud," not very good! with a sexy John (?) Stephano as "who he was" and he's killed AGAIN by the same rather unhappy-looking woman. No wonder. Finish the ghastly beef from 11:10 to 11:40 and then rather desperately start proofreading from page 251. It goes rather well, however, and I'm doing 40 pages on proofreading/hour, making the WHOLE of 110 pages in 3, including alpha. Work to 2:45, wash face, get to sleep exhausted at 3; no smoke.
DIARY 11557
MONDAY, JANUARY 10. Wake at 8:10, astounded after 5 1/6 hours sleep, but I HAD said I'd like to get up as early as reasonable to finish proofreading 150 pages for John this morning. Decide to do light-work, rather than doze, and it goes VERY hard but I feel QUITE good when I finish with it, glad to have done it in preparation for class tonight, first time in 4 weeks. Get to the table at 8:45, John calls from HOME at 9:45, and I say 150 pages for each of M, T, W, Th, then sweat to get them FINISHED. Ron calls for me to work, and I say no but get Nick Sanabria's work number, and he said he'll call me. Sweat to think the messenger may come without my having gotten to page 400, but by 11:15 it's all finished, I've added the five corrections to the sheet of page 1-250 corrections, and the messenger STILL hasn't come, due no doubt to the FOUL sleet and DARK and WINDY weather that kept John out of the office. Then move the table back into the kitchen and fix all the copies and pages together, feeling GOOD to get it all done in TIME, and then stop at 12 (actually later, but I goofed off earlier) and have breakfast and type this 12:45. Get back to typing pages 562-610 from 1 to 5:20, messenger finally coming about 3:30 and I finally getting to John (his line is always busy) about 3:50 to tell him. Then stop, Arnold calls and talks until about 5:35, and then I put on the hamburger for dinner and shower quickly and eat and shave and dress for Actualism, feeling rather anxious, which pre-figures the evening, and get back to typing 6 pages from 6:40 ("Star Trek" a duplicate) to 7:10, seemingly hardly even worth TALKING about. Then don't care to be early, so I leave about 7:20, finishing "The Cyberiad" finally on the subway (which seems VERY loud and lower-class since I've been holed up in my apartment so long---that deserved another sheet: DIARY 11558), having started it OVER TWO MONTHS ago, and not having time to read because of the index. Get there at 7:50 and chat with Malcolm and Jim, then upstairs for Allan and Matthew already there, and the evening is VERY interesting (see DIARY 11559). Out at 10, see Ron in the Backgammon place and stop in there for 10 minutes, then get home by 10:35 to get another unspoken message, proofread (after calling Pope and his saying he's COMING at 12:30 Sunday) from 10:45-2:10, with heater going, blanket swathing, and heating pad heating feet. By then I'm STARVED so I make some eggs (relieved that I called Watson and said PUT cat in living room), and return to FINISH alphabetizing from 2:35-3:50. Can't SLEEP, smoke, sleep (earplug) 4:35 am.
DIARY 11563
TUESDAY, JANUARY 11. Wake at 8:55 (less than 4 hours!) to the sound of the radio upstairs LOUD, which can't be a coincidence since she now knows I work LATE in the FRONT room, but I've the earplugs in and almost immediately go to light-work to energize for the day. Phone's nearby and JUST as the star goes into the stable upper position the phone rings at 9:40; goody, it's John about the index or Dennis about his return? It's about Actualization, and I say I'm busy through January and she tells me about a few things in February but I'm really not INTERESTED. Out of bed at 9:50, check a few last things in the pages 400-550, then get to these pages (6 of them, for mainly Actualism #6) by 11:25, still wanting to start a list of energy APPLICATIONS. So I do that, then get to typing pages 617-635 from 11:35 to 1:15, and go down for the mail and have breakfast, then type from 636-668 from 1:35 to 4:35. About 4:25 I decided I wanted to know if Dennis was OK, so I called his service to find that he hadn't checked in yet, but then he calls back about 10 minutes later to say he'll be over between 6:30 and 7, and will want to eat dinner late. So I have to get out shopping for meat and a few other things, and concentrate on bargains: 4 cans of beets, 4 cans of corn, a pound of butter, 6 cans of OJ, each for $1. Then shower and wash my hair just before 6, check the "Star Trek" duplicate, and shave while the last of the old hamburger is cooking, and I finish the vegetables too, and then wash the dishes, finishing by 6:35 and he's not here yet, so I get back to typing to page 689 from 6:45 to 8:15, and then he breezes in, trembling either from the cold or the emotion of holding me, and he holds for quite awhile, and brings out the avocados and passion fruit liquor, which we have right away, and I put on the roast beef just before 9, and then we're into the living room to sip liquor, cuddle, neck, and talk about his trip, which sounds like it was a good one (see DIARY 11564). Then eat from 10:30 to 11, with great corn, then smoke, I put on the trip tape, and we get into INCREDIBLE sex (see DIARY 11565) from 11:10 until 2:45, over 3 hours, and then eat cake and cookies and even cereal, glad for the heater in the bedroom, and get to sleep about 3, putting the phone TOTALLY off, just DON'T want to be disturbed!
DIARY 11566
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12. Woke at 5 to shut off the light and switch sides of the bed, getting a drink and find that it seems to be getting light outside already, and then wake again at 11, astounded to have slept so long, and Dennis shows no signs of stirring, so I get to the proofreading at 11:05 and work almost until 12, when he gets up, and I call John and say the 150 pages for today will be ready at 4 pm, and he says that's too late, so he'll send for them in the morning. That's his decision. Then Dennis and I have tuna salad in two of his avocados, with muffins, orange juice, and his coffee on the side. He calls Greg and arranges to meet at his apartment after he gets his haircut at 3:30, and he leaves about 2:30 and says he'll be back about 9, as I order so that I can work for more hours today than the merely 5.5 hours yesterday, which doesn't WORK. Then work from 2:05 to 4:35, typing to page 715, getting a call from Ginny, who's not working Friday so she'll send the index by messenger on Thursday. Later, Jim Moultner calls and says Bruce will pick up amyl tomorrow morning at 10, also, since they've moved out to Southampton for at least six months. Then from 4:35 to 7:30 I finish the proofreading of pages 551-700, having taken 10 minutes off to verify the old "Star Trek," and watch "Is the Ice Age Coming?" on TV from 7:30 to 8, rather good shots of old glaciers, and they seem to agree that it'll be COMING, but slowly. Then more index from 8 to 8:35, when I take off to type these three pages until 9:10, Dennis not here yet. Back to index from 9:10 to 9:20, then put on dinner, figuring he'll be here by 10:30, anyway, but he's not, and I get back to work from 10:30 to 11:05, typing through 722 and doing badly, and he comes in saying that I said I was going to WORK until about 9, not that he would be HERE about 9, and I had to admit he was right, after bawling him out for putting his shoes on the carpet and for washing the dishes and putting the silverware in all different ways. He asks "Are you serious?" to tell me I'm going too far, and I apologize about that and we have dinner until 12, finishing up the beef roast, and get into bed with the heater for incredible sex, ME coming this time with what he says is a GREAT shower, but I'm so stoned I don't even raise my head to look, but it's an enormous relief when it's over. To sleep about 2 am.
DIARY 11567
THURSDAY, JANUARY 13. Wake about 8:30 and have a quick breakfast of boiled eggs and Dennis leaves to return a packet of the wrong mail he got at the post office with his, and I get to the index typing at 9:50 to 8:05, taking off a half-hour for lunch of tuna (or was it cereal?) and talking on the phone with Ginny about the index she sends me today, and then take another hour around "Star Trek" to glance at the index, verify that it IS "Menagerie Part II" for the title, and then sit and watch it while eating something for a snack, and then get back to typing and proofreading. Dennis calls then about 7:40 to ask if I want anything, I tell him to bring red wine, and then Peggy calls to talk to him and I say he'll be right in, but he isn't, coming in at 8:05, accepting my apologies for last night and HER apologies for being curt over the PHONE last night. He seems to be the type who collects apologies. But I'm happy he's here, we have dinner of hamburger (quite burnt when I forget when I put it in as we drink before dinner) and then I work a bit more from 9:30 to 10:30, completing through to page 833, having done 111 pages today for a barely new record, and then I fix things up a bit, shower and shave, and prepare to watch "Nosferatu" at 11 to find that it's been changed to 12! Damn! So we have nothing to do but pour ourselves more sherry and smoke and get into bed and have another fabulous session, this one going quite rapidly so that we're finished by about 12:30, and then we get up and Dennis laughs through the last half of "Nosferatu," giggling at him carrying the coffin of dirt through the streets, in what seems to be broad daylight, we eating popcorn, and laughing at the overacting of the various women who get attacked by him. I worked about 15 minutes on my bill, figuring up how many hours I'd worked since the beginning, though I'm not terribly happy with my only 10 hours today, but figure I'll be done on time to get it to John tomorrow. The edge of sex has gone off between Dennis and me from the vacation, and he works on a second orgasm without really getting hard and not getting close to coming, even with more grass and poppers. Have to get the cocks used to super-duty services again! Bed after eating lots of junk about 1:30, furry teethed and full-stomached.
DIARY 11568
FRIDAY, JANUARY 14. I'm back at the index at 9:15, typing through to the final page, page 860, and proofreading the last bits while Dennis goes to the bank and returns to act as a messenger for me and John for $15, and he takes the stuff off while I finish the alphabetization corrections, phoning them to John about 4:30, after Dennis leaves, having delivered them about 3:50 and stayed for a tour of the place. I'd started planning to add 8 MORE hours and then took them off to make a "bargain" bill of $6890, and John said that sounded high, so I typed up a letter saying WHY it was that much, and typed until about 5:45 finishing up the notes on corrections to both the manuscript and the index, figuring it came to 458 hours in all, by all means the superest job yet. Still not finished at 6 and check to see what's the title of "Star Trek:" "Shore Leave" comes on and it's one I've NEVER seen before, and it turns out to be by STURGEON. Incredibly happy that I happened to CATCH it, and had the time to WATCH it. Had taken off 1/2 hour for lunch when my stomach couldn't take it any more, and HAD planned to go out for groceries but didn't, so when Dennis got back about 7:45, after I'd shaved and showered for him and the restaurant, we made some frozen daiquiris and settled down to talk and drink and decide to go to the Mexican restaurant. It's been snowing very hard out, and all the windows are getting coated with ice, and the snow isn't even melting on the streets it's so cold. Decide to try something different, but the flautas are greasy and not terribly filling, though Dennis's chile rellenos weren't bad, but I (probably again) tried the Manzanilla wine and it's wasn't so great (Dennis ordered beer and it never came). Back about 11 to smoke and have another great session of sex, he coming first and then me following with his come as lubricant, and then into the kitchen for the rest of the popcorn from last night, cookies, toast, and then he gets to the cereal, which he says he never has for breakfast so he'll have at 2 am. It's cold without the heat, and this morning it was actually OFF for a couple of hours until a repairman came to fix the boiler, which had boiled over. Bed tired but relieved that the PEDIATRICS INDEX IS FINISHED AT LAST!
DIARY 11569
SATURDAY, JANUARY 15. Wake about 10, surprised that I seemed to need so much sleep. Dennis is up quickly so I don't have time for light-work, having done VERY little this week (or is it TODAY that I try doing it TWICE, just to make up for the times I haven't been doing it?). We start playing with each other and both get very hard; at last he's sitting on me playing with himself almost to coming and I can't resist; reach around and bring myself to the point of orgasm, and as I shoot I say "I'm coming, turn around if you want to watch" and he says "I'm coming too," but I think he doesn't make it until a bit later when he says he DID, and I'm sorry that I missed it, saying that we'll have to do it again so I can enjoy BOTH of us more. Up about 11:30, and we're so stuffed from last night that I request a bit of time with the newspapers before breakfast, and he says OK. Get into the Times of the Sunday BEFORE last, even to working the puzzles (no, I'd worked THOSE puzzles before), finishing it about 1:30, and at that time I make french toast with the Granola bread that Dennis dislikes, but it fills us up enough for the rest of the day. I get back to LAST Sunday's Times, doing part of one of the puzzles but not getting very far in it, and finish all but a couple of sections by 4:20, when we leave to look at the apartments that might be subsidized for performing artists on 42nd between 9th and 10th, and it's VERY cold and windy outside, making walking sort of a chore, and we're inside to look at studios and one bedrooms and two bedrooms, and find that the rent is 25% of whatever his income is, and he takes an application form. Look around for "Time Out" from London, that Michael told me about, but can't find it, so walk up to Great Aunt Fanny's for a Fannyburger with salad, potatoes, and Brandy Alexander pie, and Dennis insists on paying for the $6 bill even though he only owes me $3 or $4 from before, and then subway down to ATL to see Gary Davis, which I treat him to, and he's not so good, but quite a sexy body (see DIARY 11570). Home about 10:30, spend some time with the NEW Times, and then get to bed to smoke and drink sherry and talk about living together (see DIARY 11571), then cuddle more and talk and we both come before getting up again and eating junk to stuffiness.
DIARY 11572
SUNDAY, JANUARY 16. Dennis is up at 10 to call his folks before they call Greg at his apartment, and I'm back to the Times, finishing up the previous week and starting on THIS week before Peter Brook comes on Camera Three at 11, which I dislike, and I make soft-boiled eggs because they're the quickest thing I can think of. Out at 11:40 to miss Pope at the station, where the 7th Avenue subway isn't running today, and go to his place and then check back to find him at the station at 11:50, and we go to the A train, which is good for him since he says he doesn't want to walk. Get to the apartment at 12:32 to find only one other person there for the introductory session, and Jan says there's a short wait before they're ready for me. Malcolm greeted us with his smiling face, saying he'd been to a make-up session this morning since he wouldn't be there tomorrow night, and we're getting the summary lesson. Bruce's walking around, and HE escorts me into the bedroom for my body session (see DIARY 11573) which replaces the one that Rebecca was supposed to give me with the oil and vibrator. He usually charges $20 but since the agreement was made for $15, he takes my check for $15 and I feel that I've made up for the $12.50/$10 original meeting downer. Pope didn't care for the intro and agrees to walk in the park, delightful, while we talk about it, leaving the park as the cruisers come through shouting for everyone to get off the obviously solidly-frozen ice. He wants to play Scrabble, so we're back to his place about 4, calling Dennis, who doesn't want to come over, and we play a game and I win, so I leave about 6, Pope content, and I buy 4 bell peppers that Dennis wanted, and he makes peppers and hamburger and corn for dinner. We'd thought about watching "Secret Service" from 6 to 8, but I got back and finished reading the Times, and he was reading his Louise Nevelson book, much of it to me. We finish eating and get right into smoking, enjoying our cocks, and he comes quickly and then I come, and he gets into himself enough so that he comes a SECOND time, and it's very pleasant. We eat lots of stuff (he joking about my talking of a "proper orange" for eating, rather than the cookies and toast and cereal we end UP with, and the rest of the banana cake I'd bought yesterday, too), and we get to sleep about 11:30, ready for a new week of lots of wonderful work.
DIARY 11574
MONDAY, JANUARY 17. Dennis set the alarm for 8, but he didn't get up till 9, and maybe THIS was the time I worked with the Wisdom light twice, to try to catch up with the week that I didn't do anything. I'm typing something, not intending to have breakfast, and Dennis calls at 9:30, having made hamburgers and brown rice for breakfast, which surprises me, and then he goes off about 11:30 to Tree for work. I want to start on the index, but first I have to put the boxes of cards away from Pediatrics. Get those stacked into boxes next to the filing cabinet, and then from 11:45 to about 3 I page through, finding I missed a couple of important messages by not going through the pages he'd returned, phoning him to find he didn't get the letter from Friday yet, and I type up another letter with about 12 corrections on it and prepare to mail it to him, spending about 3 hours on Pediatrics that I'm not getting paid for, doing NOTHING on the new index. Start paying checks around 4, discovering that I haven't done the checking account yet, so I get that together and stand in a cold line downstairs, reading "The Invincible," which is a lousy translation, trivializing Lem, to get cash and a money order for the bank, then to the post office to mail letters, to the library to find no records I want, and I'd also taken out the Chinese and laundromat clothes to be washed. Back at 5 to fix up a bit of the rest of the apartment, doing essentially everything but vacuuming, and Dennis calls at 6 to say he'll be here about 6:45, so I'd put on the pork shoulder at 5 and take it out at 6:45, finishing the corn then just as he comes in, and we eat quickly enough for me to leave at 7:15, getting to Actualism in plenty of time STILL to chat with Dorothy in the hallway, and Rich comes in so that I can give him, at least, the $2 I owe him, and the session is an intensive which is rather kicky (see DIARY 11575). Out early at 9:25 and home at 10 to a pleased Dennis, so we smoke early, listening to Ravi Shankar, and get into lots of grass and lots of poppers and he comes grandly and I don't really feel like finishing, so I say we'll wait until the morning, and then into the kitchen for MORE eating AGAIN, and get to sleep about 1:30.
DIARY 11576
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18. Again the alarm's set, but this time I think at 8:30, and Dennis gets up fairly early, we both playing with our cocks and not doing too much about them. He makes fried eggs and a slice from the ham, and I join him about 9:30 with a bowl of cereal, and then he goes off to Tree again. I make the bed and do some little things and at last get to the index for Ginny from 11:50 to 4:50, doing only 141 pages in that time, slightly behind schedule, but I've talked to Ginny about some things she has to do for me before I can finish, and the editor there is out for the start of the week because her father had died over the weekend. Then out in the same 8 weather to shop for shampoo, bath salts, another felt-tip pen, a gift packet for $5.95 for Mrs. Johnson of baba au rum from Ferraro's and a packet of teas, honey, and jams for $3.95 for Mrs. Gray, whom I later remember is diabetic! Pick up some Tia Maria for Arnie for tonight's dinner, and the laundry, which he called me about last night, saying he'd tried to get in touch with me all day Sunday for. I manage to type two pages before Dennis gets in at 6:50 and he acts a bit pissed because I say we needn't be on time, and we get there about 7:15, the second and third to arrive after Chris, the "straight" guy from the house at the beach who seems to be after ANYONE. Alice and black Margaret arrive just after, pleasant; and Judy Arthur is a real charmer, as is Violon from Paris, with Greg and Christine. Lots of red wine to start, hot hors d'oeuvres of cheese and pita and saffron, and then the tables are set up for dinner of livers and mushrooms and noodles, shredded carrots, and a lovely salad to start with of greens and red peppers and raw sole, which goes down surprisingly well with me. The evening is a smashing success (see DIARY 11577) and Dennis at 11:20 says we should leave, the first to go, and we're back to say how pleasant the evening was, smoke, and get into sex, he coming fairly quickly, me really whacking away, getting to a frenzy of activity, groaning and writhing in ecstasy when I finally do come, squirting all over the place, feeling great. Don't think we eat much this evening, having had so much beforehand, and to sleep about 1 am, early.
DIARY 11578
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19. Ask Dennis if he wants up at 8 and he says "No," so AGAIN I go through two complete cycles of light-work by 9, actually IN FACT having no trouble with it. Up to make soft-boiled eggs again, since I don't feel like doing much of anything, and he gets off to work about 10:30 and I get to the index at 11:35 and work straight through to 5:35, finishing up all 404 pages, calling Ginny for questions, leaving word, and she doesn't call back! Lauren calls in the morning, saying that I should come in to pick up the shorthand things on Tuesday, so I hope I can delay taking in the index until then. Dennis calls to ask if I want anything from the store, Greg calls him about the landlord fixing a radiator, and about 5:30 I called Art, who called me about 7 to say that the rest of the play's run, through Sunday, is sold out! Water the plants and get the 5th last title for "Star Trek," watching it for about 15 minutes, then shut it off and start making dinner, and Dennis comes in about 7 as I'm typing the first few of these pages. Have lots of the salty ham and two more ears of corn until 7:50, but we're still hungry and look around for more things, but I'm missing various ingredients so we'll just have popcorn tonight. Then I get back to get caught up with these 10 pages by 8:50, and I feel great that, gradually, things are being taken care of. All I have to do NOW is dust and vacuum, get my license renewed, type up the datebook, file the pages from 1976, and get ready for a NEW year of activities. Enough for NOW. [But it's now four days later and I haven't done ANYTHING of that list, above!] Start to watch the Inaugural Eve Special at 9, but after Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Linda Ronstadt, Freddie Prinze, and Mohammed Ali were all awful, and Clamma Dale and the lead-Porgy weren't so much better than the ones I saw, I turn it off about 10 and Dennis continues reading and I shower and shave and we smoke and end up in bed. Smoke quite a bit and then I go down on him until he's hard, getting me hard, and we swing around to a delightful 69, but then he ends up on top of me, coming gloriously, and I try to use his come to get me to come, but I'm tired and drained, so I just say "Let's postpone this till next time" and we turn over to sleep about 1 am.
DIARY 11579
THURSDAY, JANUARY 20. I'm up about 9, doing light-work ALMOST two times before he wakes and we start cuddling, and I put on five slices of bacon to make the scrambled eggs seem better, moaning that so much time has passed (it's about 11:30) without doing anything. Dennis goes off to work and I get to the index at 11:45, working through till 5, talking to Margaret Willard at ACC, who doesn't want to pay my bill. "Too high." Having typed over half the cards at a reasonably fast rate, and then dash over to get meat and groceries for the weekend, deciding on hamburger and pork chops, and get back way before 6 to have some muffins as a snack while checking that "Star Trek" is a duplicate. Have to meet Dennis at 7:50 at the Hudson Guild Theater, and though I wanted to do the page of the diary, I didn't have the time. Water the plants that are starting to droop, and decide that I really MUST shower, so do that quickly at 7:05, then shave, and manage to get out at 7:25, not feeling TOO damp underneath the same clothes that I've worn during the day. Get to the theater, way west on 26th, from 31st and 8th at JUST about 7:51 and go down to the perfect seats he's saved for us, having been there about 7, since there was nothing doing at the Tomcat. "The Stronger" and "Creditors" were interesting (see DIARY 11580), particularly as an opportunity to see Geraldine Page really get into her wry face. Out about 10, and I'd called ATL to get the address of Delia's on 8th between 19th and 20th, and we're in for a GREAT beef stew for me for $2.95 with LOTS of meat and a PUNY overcooked chicken breast for Dennis for $4.50 or something. The salads were great, with a perky dressing, and the flan-without-arrowroot (or was it cornstarch?) was tasty for dessert. Out as they're closing at 11, down to 14th to JUST catch a subway, and home to smoke and smoke and get into bed immediately. After his hardness gets me up, he goes down and sucks and sucks and sucks, and at the end I'm praying he won't stop, and he doesn't, and though I go slightly soft toward the end, I manage to come into his mouth, which he delights in, paying for his enormous efforts on our behalf, and continues moving on me so that I have to push his head down on me to make him STOP the motions, and he idly asks if they can hear us in the apartments upstairs and downstairs, and I'm certain they can. He doesn't come, but I'm delighted to have come in his mouth, feeling great. Sleep about 2.
DIARY 11581
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21. Wake about 9 but I don't feel alert enough to get into light-work, and Dennis is awake and horny, so horny that he comes before he gets up, but I haven't been doing anything, so I'm not ready for anything. We're out of bed about 10, I'm putting things away and don't feel like having anything for breakfast, but make some soft-boiled eggs anyway, and Dennis gets out to work about 11:30. I'm to the index from 11:35 to 4:10, finishing the typing and getting into the editing, finally getting a call from Ginny at 6:30 which tells me what page numbers are what, so that I can finish typing, interrupting my alphabetization of the As. So into work that it's only at 6:20 that I turn on "Star Trek" to see the duplicate. Dennis gets in about 7:30 from his singing class, and grumbles when I ask him to make the spaghetti for dinner. He goes in to read the Friday Times and his books, and I'm working on the editing, getting hungrier and hungrier, and just about as I'm going in to do it, about 9, he starts into the making of it. I work through until 9:30, taking about 5 hours per box for the editing, and then wash my face for dinner of too-al-dente spaghetti and good sauce, to which he'd added sherry. I finish before he does and tackle the dishes; he doesn't finish and I suspect he's pissed at me, but he just goes back to reading. I finish the dishes and then shower and shave, getting into the bedroom about 10:45, putting on "Born Free" but only going through the first side of it. We smoke quite a bit and talk about why we're feeling so low in energy. I know that part of my thing is not exercising: I didn't do it but once all this week, about Tuesday, I think, before an early-afternoon shower (before Arnie's I guess it was), so THAT doesn't help matters. He suggests we may be smoking too much, and doesn't respond when I jokingly ask for an alternative. He thinks it may still be the change from Hawaii and California, and it MAY have something to do with the time change, but that WAS over 10 days ago. We drink sherry from the same glass, cough, get out the poppers for another time and don't use them, and finally shut off the light about 12:30 knowing that nothing's going to be done, looking forward to a full day tomorrow, hoping to get enough sleep to be quite ready for it.
DIARY 11582
SATURDAY, JANUARY 22. Wake about 9 but still can't quite get into it. Doze in and out, cuddling, but get out of bed about 10:30 and broil up the last of the bacon and try to put it into an omelet with parsley, but the tastes just don't go together. Put the dishes away and the kitchen looks good, at least. Fill the humidifier and water the plants and neck with Dennis, then sit him down on the sofa and give him about an hour's start on his index, then get to mine at 12:20, ludicrously late. He stops me three or four times for a total of perhaps 45 minutes with questions, but he seems to be steadily improving in his production. I'd demanded he come up with a time estimate today, and he didn't. He leaves about 5, I check the "Star Trek" duplicate at 6, and then put on hamburger to broil with mixed vegetables to eat while watching "Space 1999" at 7, but IT turns out to be an old one. Read the Friday Times until about 7:45, then get back to editing, remembering to put on my tape recorder for "The Beatles A to Z" on WNEW from 6 to 12, but they keep interrupting for commercials and I have to go back and backspace and play back where the break began to overlap the music. This sets me running back and forth, but the index editing is episodic enough to let me do this. Dennis said he'd call if he were going to be later than 1:30, and he gets in about 11:35, happy with his evening with Peggy and Blossom Dearie at Reno Sweeney's, and I want to finish editing, so he gets into reading and working with his wart until 12:35, when the first day of two is finally finished and I can shut off the tape recorder and put on more Beatles records, with Armenian music as a switch. I don't even shave or shower, but he says it's OK (since I didn't do anything last night), and we smoke again and chat, and then he gets into his cock and climbs up on my chest and comes, and I feel what it's like in a puddle on my breast and raise my hand to see two long dangles lengthening off my hand-crotch, and that begins a fantasy that lasts at least a half-hour (see DIARY 11583) with his come. I'm not into coming, and surprisingly not even into eating, so we shut off the lights about 2 and snuggle under the warm covers in the cold night: the 36 thaw from the 10 straight days of below freezing was short, it's supposed to go down to 5 or 10 tonight, and Rita wrote it was BAD in Ohio.
DIARY 11584
SUNDAY, JANUARY 23. Wake about 10, probably have some time for light-work, then Dennis gets up and we have sex, I probably come, but nothing's too clear 5 days later. I'm out to watch Camera Three and Peter Brook, LIKING when he says he wants to tap emotions other than a leading character's as he encounters a problem in his fictitious life, DISLIKING when he says every moment is new, but then that these exercises help the actor in acting. He can't have it both ways. Have a large breakfast from 11:30 to 12:30, maybe french toast with the large loaf of bread that I bought at the store. Then finish the last bit of editing on the index from 12:30 to 12:40, and decide to catch up with the diary before finally starting typing the index, since I won't be able to finish the whole thing today. Type 5 pages, just down to "the" on DIARY 1483, and suddenly the motor or the typewriter starts grinding furiously. I shut it off, turn it on; it's still going. Try it a few more times, and then it just doesn't work at all. Dead! It's good it didn't happen during the Pediatrics, but this is the WORST day for it to happen on the Basic Language indexes. Phone IBM and they say it'll cost an extra $40 or so for the weekend, and try to get in touch with Ginny, but she doesn't answer. Dennis is working on HIS index (getting his started took a long time this morning, too, I'd forgotten), too. Well, I'd found that there were a lot of programs that I wanted to watch on TV today, so I'll have the time to do it all! Get into the rest of the Times, do the puzzles, and then watch "Third Testament" from 4-5 on Soren Kierkegaard (see DIARY 11585), being interrupted by Dennis with questions. Dust the furniture, at LAST, and vacuum the living room before 5:30, when I watch "The Voyage of the Hokule'a," which is more a story of their arguments than anything else, from 5:30 to 7. I guess we eat sometime in there, and I'm recording the second half of the Beatles marathon from 6-11:30, too! And then I continue vacuuming and fixing up the apartment until 9, when "Roots" comes on, and it's pretty good, though I didn't get into it enough to watch it for the rest of the week, but I decided not to watch "Antonia," which I'd scheduled for 10. Then we're into bed about 11, smoke, probably have fabulous sex, as usual, and sleep too late, again, probably.
DIARY 11586
MONDAY, JANUARY 24. Wake, and probably have fabulous sex, and up late, at 10, disappointed that the repairman hasn't come yet, and when someone DOES call they have the address as SIXTH STREET, not HICKS Street, so they have to call another department for the call. I phone Ginny and say I have to wait for the repairman, and she still sounds calm, but I'M not! Fuss about it, over Dennis's constantly reasonable reminders that there's nothing I can do about it by worrying. I check through some of the index that he's doing before he goes to class about 12:30, and then decide to catch up with things like doing the dishes, fixing the toilet fixture finally from dripping (and it's lasted AT LEAST a week, a triumph!), and then take apart the lamp in the living room to stop it from flickering, and THAT makes me feel good, too. Probably listen to records during some of this, and though I'd like to catch up on typing, when the repairman comes about 2:30, he leaves saying that something's broken for which he doesn't have the part (I should have said I have a Selectric, not a standard---but he wouldn't have had the part anyway), taking the typewriter and putting it on the floor in case I can borrow Pope's. Pope's not there, I call Arnie, who isn't there, and then Pope calls back to say that his typewriter's too idiosyncratic for me to ever use. Oh. Scour the sink and maybe do some other errands after he leaves, but I can't get into anything, really, because I'd like to type. Get out the portable and try that, but a half-page convinces me I couldn't possibly do it with ANY speed: my fingers are SO unused to the wide throw of the manual typewriter. Shower and wash my hair to get to Actualism on time, and heat whatever we're having for dinner, after checking that "Star Trek" is a duplicate. I may sort through two weeks of TV Guides for "Star Trek" plots today, too. Out warmly dressed in the 8 weather and borrow $1.50 from Allan and am sorry to hear that he might not be coming back. The evening is quite interesting, as usual (see DIARY 11587). Out about 10:10 and ride fabulous subway home with cheerleaders and a guy sitting next to me who's the butt of their attraction, and we "shake" an appreciation, and get back about 11, beautiful snow falling and I want to go out, but Dennis has been out so I just talk, and maybe Dennis THEN has dinner ready for me, and we talk about it, smoke, get into a cold bed with ice coating the windows, and probably have sex, not coming, till after 12, fabulous as usual.
DIARY 11589
TUESDAY, JANUARY 25. Again up fairly late (10, per Dennis's diary, which is a nice supplement, when I'm late on these pages---as I'm thinking of being, since the space bar not working is a PAIN!) and check a couple of things that Dennis has been doing. Call Lauren to try to postpone the meeting today but someone else is coming, so I have to do it. Pain! Call Ginny to say nothing's happened, and then the typewriter repairman calls about 12 to say that he doesn't have the part yet, so he won't be here today. Damn! Phone Ginny to say I'll be in about 2:45, call Lauren to say Dennis's here so I can come, and out at 1:15 without having lunch, stopping for a 55 slice of pizza at 1:55, and getting to her office at 2 to find she's started already. What she said would take 30-45 minutes takes until 3:15, which is a pain, and I get to Ginny's at 3:35 and she has no alternative (since everyone leaves early on the 14th floor, where she'd planned to put me) but to give me HER typewriter at HER desk. I set up the scotch tape for the page count, which amuses everyone, and then she gives me manuscript pages to type on, which are a GREAT saving in time and line counting. Type from 3:45 to 7:15, taking time out to glance nervously out the window when fire engines sound below, people say they heard groups coming down the fire stairs from above, and later hear that there was a fire in building materials for new offices on 20th or so floor. I kept thinking "the building CAN'T catch fire the ONLY night I'm staying here!" Finish not-enough pages by 7:15, but called Michael and Stephen and Avi (nice chats, all) to go, and Dennis was working on the index, so I get there and sell the ticket to someone who asks if ABT is on strike, since there was no performance there tonight (and shouldn't have been, as I check now), and the evening is SENSATIONAL (see DIARY 11590). Out at 10:30 and home at 11 to find Dennis marinating pork chops, and stews them from 11:15 to 12:15 while we talk and drink, and then get into bed and smoke, but as he says, we do not have sex. Some of these evenings are so cold that the heater is on full (and I shudder, in two ways, that John ask for it back), and it's just not conductive to sex. Also, I know I have to set the alarm for 8:30 to finish typing tomorrow at Harper and Row, while Dennis works and waits for repairman.
DIARY 11591
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26. Alarm rings at 8:30 (and I hadn't had time for light-work) and rather to Dennis's chagrin I hop RIGHT out of bed and into the bathroom, and there HE is, dressed already, in the kitchen putting on coffee when I get out. Quick breakfast and I leave about 9:15, getting to proofreading in Ginny's office until she arrives at 10:30, and then she puts me in an office down the hall where someone's not working today, though things must change so quickly there that lots of people do double-takes and wonder if I've become the new Rights and Permissions Editor. Work well from 9:45 to 12:15, and then Susan and I go downstairs to meet Sal at 12:20 and we walk across to Hunan Yuan, where hot and sour is undoubtedly the best soup, the eggplant is still super, and I'm sorry that the small shrimps aren't river shrimps, but they like them anyway. Sal's quite outrageous, even talking about the two GUYS who are getting married, having the reception at his place, and I just can't figure why anyone would want to do that. Leave Sal and go to Third Avenue to hunt for an ice cream cone for me for dessert, then go with her to the bank, then DON'T go with her to the drugstore, and with that combination of doing and not doing, meet Art Khanlian (again!), Don Dewey (looking older but still sexy) and Norm Fastenburg, who's thinner and MUCH sexier now, and he wishes me luck getting a job with Art. Quite a meeting! Back to the office and finish typing from 2 to 9:00: Ginny had trouble finding som~~~~~~~~~eone who'd stay with me, then the art director would, and her job delayed her EXACTLY long enough so that I could finish, and I found myself saying to her "Sorry it had to be that way," surely implying that I created the situation so that she'd have to work to let me out properly with the key. Put in TWO bills, one for $662 for 25 per line, one for $750 for 50 hours, which seems VERY high. Maybe I'm slowing down? Home to finish "The Invincible" on the subway, a LOUSY translation, and find that Dennis went to singing class only to find it cancelled, so he came back and made chicken with onions, butter, white wine, and apples (which have been in the fridge since Art's place!). As Dennis says in his diary: "We have sex, and go to sleep." Probably 2 am again.